Whitman and Beat! Beat! Drums!

The theme of Whitman's poem, Beat! Beat! Drums!, is, in my opinion, anti-war. During the first few stanzas of the poem, one would think Whitman was looking at the Civil War from a pro-war standpoint. However, in the last line of the poem, "So strong you thump O terrible drums..." it is clear that Whitman is trying to denounce the war rather than glorify it. Whitman, in all three ... the war. The way he used this style of writing gives the reader a glance of what is to come, as opposed to what has happened. Throughout the poem, Whitman uses the effect of the continuous beat of the drum and th...

• Word Count: 521
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... ultimately wasteful land fruitless. Whitman relates to the horror and suffering endured by the soldiers and civilians in order to show the destructiveness of the Civil War. The Civil War undid many things, it disunited families, and set countrymen against each other, this only made fighting the ugly. The conflict ravaged this country and, "burst like a ruthless force," (Beat! Beat! Drums! 12) disrupting all the ... life along the way, in both the North and South. Consequently, "some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad," (The Wound-Dresser, 163). In the hospital tents, ...

• Word Count: 1155
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... love of comrades." Also, in this poem he says that he really doesn't have anything in common with other people, and he doesn't really care about them. However, he still has friends where he lives, and he establishes those ties. In Whitman's poem, "Beat! Beat! Drums!" Whitman is talking about the effect that war has on people. This poem was written in response to the Civil War ... when wives were losing their husbands and mothers were losing their children. His view of war is that it leaves people unhappy ... and no one can be left in peace. The drums and the bugles are heard throughout...

• Word Count: 348
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... Powell (piano), Miles Davis (trumpet), and Charles Mingus (bass). The standard ensemble became a quintet, consisting of piano, bass, drums, reed instrument, and trumpet. (Erenberg). The distinguishing factors of the bop style were: notes that were more far-reaching, and which Garner 2contained a rhythm that was looser and more complex. Instead of the traditional stressing of the first and third beat of a measure, as in traditional ... first, rhythm, has been utilized in the United States since the onset of free verse. Following the free-verse tradition of Walt Whitman, a Beat-like lumina...

• Word Count: 2473
• Approx Pages: 10

... saw it. Drum Taps' reflects Whitman's deepening awareness of the significance of the American Civil War and the hope for reconciliation between North and South, which he wrote in the months when he was ministering to the wounded in battlefield hospitals {Bloom, 205}. Other poems followed about the Civil War. An example of one would be a poem called Beat! Beat! Drums!' Beat! beat! drums!-blow! bugles! blow! Make no ... shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O terrible drums "so loud you bugles blow.{Whitman, 186} Whitman is shedding light upon an historic...

• Word Count: 3004
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... quiet -- no happiness must he have now with his bride, 6 Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain, 7 So fierce you whirr and pound you drums -- so shrill you bugles blow. 8 Beat! beat! drums! -- blow! bugles! blow! 9 Over the traffic of cities -- over the rumble of wheels in the streets; 10 Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the ... be talking? would the singer attempt to sing? 13 Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? 14 Then rattle quicker, heavier drums -- you bugles wilder blow. 15 Beat! beat! drums! -- blo...

• Word Count: 2070
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School